When
the Liberal Coalition party were in power in Victoria, it was alleged
that at a meeting between a senior Liberal politician and community
housing representatives somebody asked the question
'What
about the public tenants?'
Maybe the reason for the question was unease about entering into massive paradigm -shifting changes in housing policy, without the knowledge and consent of the public tenants themselves.
Maybe
the questioner was disturbed to be entering into arrangements (
involving the prospect of big, serious money and masses of properties
) which include the very real possibility of mass displacement of public tenants
from their homes - the end result being homelessness?
Who
knows ?
However,
it was alleged that 'community housing' members present at the
meeting were told that they needn't be overly concerned because
'PUBLIC
TENANTS DON'T FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT THEIR HOMES AS THE REST OF US
DO.'
On
discussing the fuel exise - ' the poor don't drive'
and
the solution for first home owners is 'to get a good job'.
And furthermore, we can rip the homes away from public tenants with impunity because public tenants are somehow different to the rest of society –
we don't feel the same way about our homes as other people do …
A dangerous
prejudice that attempts to justify policies of mass displacement.
Take Queensland for example. A decision was made by the Liberals in 2013 to 'move on'
- displace - 250,000 !! public tenants from their homes to make way
for 'community housing'. QCOSS supported the government regarding this policy decision. Barely a mention in the news ...
The lack of any outcry or vigorous criticism by other political parties - who also have a vested interest in the desired outcome - is just as disturbing.
More
about this in a future post ..
DESMOND TUTU
Politics in this country dehumanises people. Heaven forbid that public tenants are seen as regular people. That doesn't build their agenda. Keep up t the great work friends of public housing
ReplyDeleteIt's terribly scary the non democracy that we are living in, where people have no idea what is happening, because of the biased media, stuff going on that no one knows about.
ReplyDelete